


Reconnection

by Amy R (Brightknightie)



Series: Fireweed [2]
Category: Forever Knight
Genre: AU, Chess, Gen, Historical, Middle Ages, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-02-26
Updated: 2009-02-26
Packaged: 2017-10-23 17:20:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/252850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brightknightie/pseuds/Amy%20R
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Circa 1229, Nick gives Fleur a handcrafted gift.<br/>       <em>"There was no going back.  And he had promised Henry that he would take care of their sister, whatever might come."</em><br/><span class="small">(Original: February 2009.)</span></p>
            </blockquote>





	Reconnection

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FalconHorus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FalconHorus/gifts).



**  
_c.1229, Paris_   
**

Nicholas stepped through the door and saw Fleur's face fall. "Hoping for someone else?"

"Hoping for supper, more like." His sister sighed and made room for him on the straight-backed bench nearest the fire. Vampires needed neither warmth nor light, but that did not mean they enjoyed the cold and wet of winter nights, or that they could read in the dark. Fleur closed the book she had been studying and pushed it gently down the table. "Will you take me hunting now? Please?"

"In this?" Nicholas gestured toward the tightly-shuttered window, and the storm screaming outside it. "If you can drink frozen blood, I beg you to tutor me in the feat."

"Do not mock me." Fleur frowned, pulling her fire-warmed wool cloak more tightly around her shoulders. "I have been caged ever since we reached Paris. You and Lucien and Janette come and go, but I must sit here like a hooded hawk. I know you think I cannot control myself around so many mortals yet, but how will I learn if no one will teach me?"

"I said the same thing myself, a year gone," Nicholas admitted. "Lacroix and Janette insisted I stay down in the catacombs. I was certain I was ready to take on the city."

"Why do I suspect that the moral of the story is that I must stay in this chamber?"

"Because you know we have your best interests at heart?" Nicholas smiled, but felt his lips twist. He had no words for it, yet something about seeing his little sister as a vampire raised qualms he had not admitted before. He did not like to think of her hunting. Killing. Feeding. He had been right to insist they leave her mortal, he knew. He had been wrong to return as a vampire himself. But there was no going back. And he had promised Henry that he would take care of their sister, whatever might come. Fighting the stifling mood, Nicholas opened his belt pouch. "I have something for you."

"Oh? A chess queen!" Fleur exclaimed over the enthroned wooden figure Nicholas set on the table. "To replace one of those ridiculous viziers in Lucien's set. Lovely! Did you carve her?"

Nicholas nodded. He set two other pieces beside the little queen.

"These are marvelous." Fleur lifted each in turn, admiring the detail on all sides. "I had no idea you had such a skill."

"Something I picked up along the way." Memory threatened to drag him back to slow, scorched days with the Crusader army at the siege of Damietta, but he shook it off. "A tale for another time, perhaps. For now, shall we play?"

"Yes, certainly!" Fleur tucked her cloak around her arms as she leaped to fetch and lay out Lacroix's traveling chess set. An embroidered cloth folded up to fit in the bag of pieces, in place of a board. "Lucien says that his set is as the game is played by those who invented it, with the vizier and _oliphants_ and chariots. But it is absurd to omit the queen. All the game's allegorical potential is wasted without its lady on the board — how can it represent society without her?" Fleur picked up the queen Nicholas had made and switched her with the white vizier. "I am certain I shall play better with proper pieces."

Fleur had made that complaint before; it was what had inspired Nicholas to pick up the block of wood. "You do realize that Lacroix has simply had much, much longer to practice chess than you have?"

"Let us at least try my theory before we discard it." Fleur grinned and switched out the other two freshly carved pieces. She sat down across from her brother, but then lifted the new king again, turning the enthroned figure around and around in front of her eyes. "Why, this is Lucien, is it not? There is his ring, and his hair — gracious, his hair! How did I not see it before? And the horseman wears our family crest, so he is you, and the queen — she holds a flower, not a scepter! She is me!"

Nicholas leaned back, ready to bask in the praise his artistry had richly earned.

"But where is Janette?"

Nicholas blinked. "A moment ago, one woman on the board thrilled you. Now you want two?"

"When have I ever settled for what is already in my grasp?" Fleur returned the pieces and opened her hands. "If I win this game, you replace one of the white _oliphants_ with a likeness of Janette. We will build up my side one piece at a time."

"And if I win?"

Fleur patted his hand. "Then you can teach me how to carve something for you."

Nicholas had seen Fleur put even Lacroix in check. But it would be many hours before she swept Nicholas from the board, and as long as the game lasted, he did not have to think of her as a vampire, Janette's convert, Lacroix's lover. She was only and wholly his sister, as when he had taught her the game a lifetime ago.

"I accept the wager." He nodded. "Your move."

 

  
**— End —**   


**Author's Note:**

>  **Disclaimers.** Parriot and Cohen created  Forever Knight; Sony owns it. I intend no infringement. Characters and situations are entirely fictional. (Vampires don't exist. Elephant chessmen did, though.)
> 
>  **Canon.**  
>    - _Setting:_ "Reconnection" follows the second-season episode "Be My Valentine" in the alternate universe of my "Fireweed" (1998).  
>    - _History:_ For more on the evolution of chess in Europe, I recommend  Birth of the Chess Queen (2004) by Marilyn Yalom.
> 
>  **Inspiration & Beta-Reading.**  This little story was written for the prompt "Fleur, siblings" in the "Claire Rankin Character Mini-Ficathon" event. My thanks to Jo, who worked to keep the dialogue appropriate to era and class.
> 
>  **Thank you for reading!** Constructive criticism is welcome. Please let me know what you think.


End file.
